Work in progress this week, for my book of terrible ditties: a tree with twinkly stars rocking in its branches, based on the original drawing shown below which I simply cannot believe was made in 2008! It is still so recent in my mind. I wrote the ditty it illustrates then, too. Really, other events from that time seem like ages ago, but the work itself still feels fresh.
Time warp! Some lovely slices of rich colour in this illustration for 'Square Squirrels', a ditty about round robins and squirrels and what they get up to in the spring. This was the second illustration I made for my book of verses, and was begun at the beginning of July.
I'm glad I saved these images to post and talk now, having finished the drawings for the Open Eye Gallery, as it is helping to ease me back into work on the book and whetting my appetite to get on with new illustrations. Marrow, marrow, glorious marrow
Much larger than the courgette Don't store in the dairy for it may grow hairy And then it could never be ate A taster from my book of dreadful ditties and dodgy doggerels. 'Ate' rhyming with 'courgette'? definitely dodgy. There are two verses to accompany this illustration I made during August, but I won't trouble you with the second right now, it could be a spoiler and who knows, you may just want to buy the book! I am very happy with the flatness, patterns and the curly lettering I devised for this one. It resembles a 1950s cookery book, and the jaunty comedy of the drawing sets the perfect mood for the verses. There will be a few more of these tasters coming up here while I am working on drawings for Edinburgh's Open Eye Gallery. Their Christmas exhibition On a Small Scale opens in November and the handing-in deadline is coming up fast, so the focus is on that at the moment. The works can be seen on my Heather Eliza website, slide off over there if you would like to view. I set aside the illustrations for my new book for a while. There are two reasons for this; one, I like to be absolutely sure I'm on the right tracks; two, I have been saving them to make Big Sixes for Instagram and to use here on this blog - handy for posts while I am making work for the Open Eye Gallery's Christmas exhibition in Edinburgh, which can be seen on my Heather Eliza blog here.
This was the first illustration I began in early July this year. I am planning to use it for a 'Big 6' on Instagram. |
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Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog.
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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April 2024
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This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
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These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
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A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
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